Slate History Slate Podcasts
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- History
A feed with the best history coverage from Slate’s wide range of podcasts. From narrative shows like Slow Burn, One Year, and Decoder Ring, to timely analysis from ICYMI and What Next, you’ll get the fascinating stories and vital context you need to understand where we came from and where we're going.
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John Dickerson’s Navel Gazing: Remembering Early 1990s New York
In this week’s essay, John discusses an onboarding memo for his assistant Laura, and recounts his early days living and working in New York City.
Notebook Entries:
Notebook 75
Onboard memo for Laura
Notebook 3, page 44. May 1991
June 17 start job. Good stuff
Notebook 3, page 46. May 1991
Tips on buying renting in NYC
Ask about broker
20s and 30s East side. Murry Hill
Live on no major avenue
Interest bearing account for security deposit
Medeco locks
Notebook 4, page 15
Scared standing on 34th and Broadway
$6 cab fare
Notebook 4, page 42
Getting lost in the village
References:
The Little Brown Book of Anecdotes by Clifton Fadiman
Medeco Locks
“Here is New York” by E.B. White
“Silly Job Interview” - Monty Python
John Cleese on Creativity in Management
Herbie Hancock: Miles Davis’ Essential Lesson On Mistakes
Want to listen to Navel Gazing uninterrupted? Subscribe to Slate Plus to immediately unlock ad-free listening to Navel Gazing and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/navelgazingplus to get access wherever you listen.
Podcast production by Cheyna Roth.
Email us at navelgazingpodcast@gmail.com
Host
John Dickerson
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Amicus: How Originalism Ate the Law: The Trick
In this, the first part of a special series on Amicus and at Slate.com, we are lifting the lid on an old-timey sounding method of constitutional interpretation that has unleashed a revolution in our courts, and an assault on our rights. But originalism’s origins are much more recent than you suppose, and its effects much more widespread than the constitutional earthquakes of overturning settled precedent like Roe v Wade or supercharging gun rights as in Heller and Bruen. Originalism’s aftershocks are being felt throughout the courts, the law, politics and our lives, and we haven’t talked about it enough. On this week’s show, Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern explore the history of originalism. They talk to Professor Jack Balkin about its religious valence, and Saul Cornell about originalism’s first major constitutional triumph in Heller. And they’ll tell you how originalism’s first big public outing fell flat, thanks in part to Senator Ted Kennedy’s ability to envision the future, as well as the past.
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Outward: Mary & George's LGBTQ Historical Drama
Former Outward producer June Thomas joins hosts Bryan Lowder and Jules Gill-Peterson to chat about the very gay new series from Starz, Mary and George. They talk 16th-century sex and sexuality and share their prides, provocations, and the gay agenda for May.
Read What's Fact and What's Fiction in Mary & George from Slate
Podcast production by Palace Shaw.
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Student Protests Can Backfire (Badly)
On today’s episode of Hear Me Out: solidarity?
College campuses across the country are grappling with protests and occupations in the name of a free Palestine. Many hundreds of students, faculty, and outside community members have been arrested in tense clashes with police — called onto campuses by the universities themselves.
Student protestors have shaped public discourse on matters like war and the environment for many decades. But without a clear, sympathetic goal, they can also lead to political backlash that far outlasts a four-year degree.
So are today’s student protestors instigating change in Gaza… or teeing up a crackdown on speech and protest here at home?
Prof. Steven Mintz of UT Austin joins us, and urges a cautionary look at the history books.
If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can email the show: hearmeout@slate.com
Podcast production by Maura Currie.
Want more Hear Me Out? Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening across all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/hearmeoutplus to get access wherever you listen.
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John Dickerson’s Navel Gazing: The Power of Four Numbers
In this week’s essay, John discusses the art of attention and how to develop the skill of slow-looking.
Notebook Entries:
Notebook 75, page 8. September 2021
1016
Notebook 1, page 54. June 1990
- Magna carta 1215 at Salisbury
- Girls skipping
- The Haunch of Venison
- Chris
References:
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
A Little History of the World by E.H Gombrich
Artist Jeff Koons
“The Art of Divination: D.H. Lawrence on the Power of Pure Attention” by Maria Popova for The Marginalian
“Gabfest Reads: A Woman’s Life in Museum Wall Labels” for Political Gabfest
One Woman Show by Christine Coulson
“Grammy-winning artist Jason Isbell talks about the craft of songwriting and his latest music” for CBS News
A Journey Around My Room by Xavier De Maistre
“Just think: The Challenges of the Disengaged Mind” by Timothy Wilson, et.al for Science
“Our Rodent Selfies, Ourselves” by Emily Anthes for the New York Times
One Man’s Meat by E.B. White
Podcast production by Cheyna Roth.
Email us at navelgazingpodcast@gmail.com
Want to listen to Navel Gazing uninterrupted? Subscribe to Slate Plus to immediately unlock ad-free listening to Navel Gazing and all your other favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts by clicking “Try Free” at the top of our show page. Or, visit slate.com/navelgazingplus to get access wherever you listen.
Host
John Dickerson
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Hit Parade: We Want It That Way Edition Part 2
When you hear “boy band,” what do you picture? Five guys with precision dance moves? Songs crafted by the Top 40 pop machine? Svengalis pulling the puppet strings? Hordes of screaming girls?
As it turns out, not all boy bands fit these signifiers. (Well…except for the screaming girls—they are perennial.) There are boy bands that danced, and some that did not…boy bands that relied entirely on outside songwriters, and those that wrote big hits…boy bands assembled by managers or producers, and quite a few that launched on their own.
From Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers to New Kids on the Block, the Monkees to the Jonas Brothers, Boyz II Men to BTS, New Edition to One Direction, and…yeah, of course, Backstreet Boys and *N Sync, boy bands have had remarkable variety over the years. (In a sense, even a certain ’60s Fab Four started as a boy band.)
Join Chris Molanphy as he tries to define the ineffable quality of boy band–ness, walks through decades of shrieking, hair-pulling pop history, and reminds you that boy bands generated some of our greatest hits, from “I Want You Back” to “I Want It That Way,” “Bye Bye Bye” to “Dynamite.” Help him “bring the fire and set the night alight.”
Podcast production by Kevin Bendis.
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